South Africa needs to move with speed on the new ‘green gold’, hydrogen

South Africa is sitting on its next “gold rush”: a massive renewable energy economy that the country is on the verge of creating – and which the rest of the world wants.

But if we don’t hurry up, we might miss it.

The energy transition can create hundreds of thousands of direct jobs, and the new economy it will empower can create millions more through the industry that will be born of it. The CSIR, for example, has estimated that renewable energy projects could create between 100,000 and 300,000 jobs alone.

Even in its lowest projection, that beats the 91,000 jobs that currently exist in the coal industry, which would be the industry most displaced.

Beyond the numbers, these are also better jobs. Primarily, they don’t come with the deadly risks of silicosis or many of the other health ailments workers experience in the sector. Importantly, the majority of the jobs – in building infrastructure and then maintaining it – are within the capabilities of workers in the coal sector.

So, as long as a lot of this development takes place in the coal belt, we can facilitate a just transition in which the coal workers who have powered our economy for decades are not left behind, but instead given a better opportunity in a new economy.

Beyond the jobs in generating this energy, we can use the energy itself to create hundreds of thousands of additional jobs, and make real progress in raising millions of South Africans out of poverty.

We have an enviably diversified economy as well as a world-class financial and services industry. In combination with our large population and abundant resources, this means our economy has the right ingredients to massively expand our primary (agriculture, mining and forestry) and secondary (manufacturing) sectors if we have an abundance of energy.

If we do this, not only can we export the goods, but we can expand our local market dramatically, creating a virtuous cycle of wealth growth.

Beyond that, there is what could only be described as a giant “RFQ” put out by the European Union, which wants to be importing 10 million tonnes of “green hydrogen” a year by 2050. Green hydrogen is hydrogen created from water using electrolysis, powered by renewable energy. It is here that South Africa is one of a few countries in the world in a particularly advantaged position:

• We’re big and we’ve got the skills. This means we have the human and industrial capital needed to develop a large hydrogen industry;


• We have the geography. Massive parts of South Africa have exceptional conditions for abundant solar and wind energy. Beyond this, our solar and wind complement each other in that our wind power tends to produce well when our solar has gone to bed for the night; and


• We’re a stable country. South Africa has gone through hard times, with stagnant growth and significant challenges, but in spite of that we’ve proven to be resilient. We’ve also just passed a major milestone, having our first truly competitive election in our history. Imagine what we can do if we’re an economy that is growing, creating wealth and lifting people out of poverty?